Bending performance of a novel cross-laminated steel-timber (CLST) composite slab
Abstract
The brittle failure of cross-laminated timber (CLT) slabs makes their strength highly sensitive to initial defects and requires higher structural reliability. This study proposes a novel cross-laminated steel-timber (CLST) composite slab by replacing the transverse timber layer in CLT slabs with steel plates. Four-point bending tests were conducted on one group of CLT slabs and three groups of CLST composite slabs with varied steel plate layouts. The results show that replacing the transverse timber layer with a steel plate transforms the failure mode from brittle to ductile, significantly reduces rolling shear damage, and enhances both strength and ductility. Among the tested configurations, CLST1 and CLST2 slabs exhibited stable post-yield resistance, with ultimate capacities up to 32.6% higher than CLT slabs and post-yield strength retention up to 98.4% of the peak load. The CLST3 slabs, however, experienced premature shear failure due to insufficient timber layout. Theoretical models were developed to predict elastic bending stiffness using composite beam theory with an adhesive-layer thickness correction, achieving maximum absolute errors less than 10.1%, and to predict post-yield strength using a plane-section-based numerical method, achieving maximum errors less than 14.9%. Experimental observations confirmed that the adhesive interfaces and layer thickness significantly influence composite action, bending stiffness and strength of CLST composite slabs. Findings of this study demonstrate that the proposed CLST system offers a viable and promising approach for achieving ductile, high-capacity timber-steel composite slabs, and that the analytical methods provide reliable design tools.
Reference
Yu-Chen Zhang; Xiu-Zhi Zheng; Yang Xiang; Guoqiang Li. (2026). Bending performance of a novel cross-laminated steel-timber (CLST) composite slab. Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7307705
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